Continuing the account of water development from the last installment:

Meherazad had its own water problems. There was a fabulous bore well at
Meherazad dubbed "Amazing Grace", the location of which a diviner had
discovered. It was a very productive well until one year it suddenly
dried up. Although the Meherazad area has plentiful underground streams,
the farmers in the surrounding area drilled many wells and pumped water
continuously. All the aquifers there are interconnected and the farmers
just pumped it dry.

The Meherazad staff sought the services of Mr. Salve, an expert diviner.
He found an independent stream at 32 feet where a 15-foot diameter well
was dug. Remarkably, this diviner was able to find one small fissure in
a very large area.

With this success as evidence of his capability, Mr. Salve was called to
Meherabad. In the mean time, Bhau had been buying more land at Meherabad
including an area more than a mile west of Baba's Samadhi. Mr. Salve
directed the Trust to drill at a particular spot on this property where
he predicted they would find water at 28 feet. Understandably, Bhau was
hesitant to invest any more time and money in looking for water at
Meherabad. Nevertheless, he eventually decided to drill there, and sure
enough, water was struck at 28-feet. The well was very productive. We
learned from this experience that the diviner was reliable, and more
importantly, there actually was water in this area to the west of Upper
Meherabad.

We next took Mr. Salve out to the Sonewadi water project, which had been
abandoned for almost twenty years. At the base of the Sonewadi dam, on
land that the government had purchased for the project, Mr. Salve found
a stream at 42 feet. The Trust decided to seek permission to drill a
second well there. We approached the Environmental Engineering Works
Department which was in charge of the Sonewadi Project. Amazingly, the
department signed the whole Sonewadi water project over to the Trust
with the proviso that any work had to be done in cooperation with the
Government Geology Department. The department, which is run by an old
Brahmin from a service-oriented family, provided us with a geologist.
Although the diviner had pointed out a really good fissure at 42 feet
right at the base of the dam, we knew the geologist would not drill at
that spot on the say-so of a diviner, as geologists don't believe in
diviners. The geologist wanted to drill in a different area away from
the stream Mr. Salve had found. Instead, we tried to convince him to
drill in Salve's location on the pretext of seeing what the strata were
like but the geologist wasn't buying it.

In any event, we tried multiple times to organize for the drilling of
the well, convinced that, through one stratagem or another we could get
the geologist to drill in Salve's spot. However, there was always some
reason why we couldn't get the drilling rig. One day when we went to the
old Brahmin's office, he had been having trouble with his staff and was
in a furious mood. Out of frustration he said, "You just take the rig
and get out of here; I don't care what you do with it!" We took the
drilling rig to the spot the diviner had found and drilled to about 100
feet when a drunken farmer from an adjacent property jumped on top of
the rig and shouted "Stop drilling; It's my land!" We responded, "This
is not your land; you sold it to the government." The farmer insisted it
was his land. At this point, we called Bhau, who rushed a jeep out to
pick up the farmer and bring him to the Trust office. Bhau cajoled the
farmer into helping in Baba's cause by offering him Baba's Prasad
(baksheesh). The farmer allowed us to drill without further complaint.
By the time we turned the rig back on the bore well had filled with
water. The pressure created by drilling had blocked water in the stream
from flowing into the well. When the rig was turned off, the pressure
ceased and water was free to flow. A pipeline was laid from there all
the way to Meherabad. It has proved to be an excellent source of water
which, although it slows during the summer, never dries up completely.
With Mr. Salve's help, the Trust has dug two other very successful wells
in this area to the west of Meher Baba's Samadhi.

In the meantime the number of people staying at Meherabad grew
substantially. The Trust had built a large school, opened Hostel D, and
agreed to allow villagers to take water from Meherabad. So, despite the
new sources of water, the dry season continued to be difficult. In fact,
the Trust was forced to impose restrictions on the use of water.
Pilgrims staying at the Meher Pilgrim Centre were allowed to bathe only
every third day. Once it even became necessary to postpone the beginning
of the pilgrim season to October. Additionally, there was the perennial
problem of sufficient water for Amartithi, which grew substantially
every year.

Of course, poor monsoon years were especially problematic. In April
2002, it became so bad that the residents at Meherabad had to undergo
very strict water rationing. At this critical time we learned in
consultation with government officials that it would be possible for us
to tap into a twelve-inch line for a much better water supply. The local
government approved our request to connect to this line. Because of the
serious situation, the Trust was pressed to construct a 1¼ mile
connecting pipeline prior to the opening of the pilgrim season on 15th
June 2002. We were uncertain if this could be accomplished. However, the
contractor worked day and night to fulfill his promise in completing the
pipeline in time. With this new line we are back to getting about 22,000
gallons a day, which is a substantial contribution.

Throughout the years, in its letters to the Government concerning the
development of Meherabad and Meherazad, the Trust explained repeatedly
that it could not effectively continue its work due to lack of water. In
the late 90's the government finally started water schemes all over the
State of Maharashtra.

In 1997 the Trust applied to receive water under these government
schemes which propose to serve over 80 villages in the area including
Meherabad and Meherazad. Every year for nearly a decade the Trust kept
hoping that these schemes would be operational. At long last they are
nearing completion, and we expect to receive about 80,000 gallons of
water per day at Meherabad and about 50,000 gallons per day at
Meherazad. Likewise, Arangaon Village and Pimpalgaon-Malvi village will
have their independent water supplies. Getting this water goes a long
way in helping the Trust with its continued development of Meherabad and
Meherazad. But the water saga is far from over. The local population
continues to grow, and farm yields are declining due to lack of crop
rotation and pesticide use, causing farmers to rely more and more on
irrigation.

Along with the efforts to increase infrastructure in the form of wells
and pipelines, the Trust also started an afforestation project beginning
in 1976. The impetus for this, in part, was the constant refrain of
environmentally aware pilgrims staying at Meherabad, who said, "You know
if you grow trees, it will greatly increase your rainfall, because trees
attract rain." As a result of years of hard work planting a vast number
of trees, there has been a significant improvement in rainfall.
Previously Meherabad got 30 percent less rain than Ahmednagar; now it
gets 30 percent more. Although it may never return to its original
state, Arangaon might yet again be a Forest Village. Miracles still
happen now and then.

In His Service,
Peter Booth

The next article in this series will discuss the history and development
of architecture at Meherabad.